So i need some help here. Im quite technical, this is far from my first rodeo but im having just a heck of a time. Here is the scenario.

26 acres and no wifi/cell signal so working in the back of the property suffers in terms of connectivity and entertainment. I purchased the TL-ANT2415D 15dBi omni directional. I mounted the antenna on the roof straight vertical, ran the wire directly to three different routers. A nighthawk router a linksys router and a trendnet router. None of which offered any results further than just being in the house with the fixed antennas on the router. I played around enough and just decided to use the Linksys WRT54G which is just a fixed 2.4Ghz router (as apposed to the dual band nighthawk)

I go about 200 feet out from the antenna and i have a stronger connection to the wifi to the nighthawk router that is sill live in a room on the other side of the house than i do with the 15dBi antenna on the roof. I RMA'd the antenna assuming clearly it has to be the antenna. Second one on the roof and no luck so as a I.T. guy i swallow my pride and call support. We go through a few things and they dig up some documentation saying the antenna should be at a 45 degree angle to the ground. Which sort of defies the point for me but see attached.

Im lost as to the technical aspects of how a "omni directional" (aka 360 degree) antenna works better angled toward the ground. I can understand the near side or the side angled TOWARD the ground to have a better connection but the far side (angled toward the sky) doesnt seem like the best premise to "omni directional".

That aside, we also looked at some of the router settings (see attached) We changed channel from "6" to auto to clear up some chatter. Dunno if that will matter but i'll check that AND the combination of the angled antenna. Which again seems quirky at best.

So in addition to the ideas i pose:

1) angling the antenna
2) adjusting the channel

i'd like folks thoughts on any of the settings in the router screen shots. I obviously flashed the firmware on the linksys router to the dd-wrt version. Gives some more control, im wondering if i can boost power to the antenna (since there doesnt seem to be away to add power to it). I dunno. basically to end the ramble, i need ideas because im not getting any sort of positive gain by having the antenna on the roof. I've read some posts stating that maxing out the "TX" (transmitting antenna?)

Seems i found a US vendor
http://www.memorydepot.com/detail/EAP110-Outdoor.html So lets so i go this route, I can still get the 1-2foot (1 metre) and hook up the antenna i already have and mounted. How does the EAP-110 retrieve the inbound connection through the POE (i assume).

Unfortunately we're a Wi-Max provider out here and in the attic is where they have their PoE the runs from the dish to our router. I would have to intercept that line (ethernet) at some point in the attic. What would be the best way? a small switch? Some other cool splinter POE or something?

Seems i found a US vendor
http://www.memorydepot.com/detail/EAP110-Outdoor.html So lets so i go this route, I can still get the 1-2foot (1 metre) and hook up the antenna i already have and mounted. How does the EAP-110 retrieve the inbound connection through the POE (i assume).

Connection is through data cable, PoE just means that power is supplied over the same cable. See page 6 of the Installation Guide for schematics (ignore that the IG is for the EU model, it's still the same for the US model):

Unfortunately we're a Wi-Max provider out here and in the attic is where they have their PoE the runs from the dish to our router. I would have to intercept that line (ethernet) at some point in the attic. What would be the best way? a small switch? Some other cool splinter POE or something?

You need to connect the EAP to your WiMAX router (LAN), not to the dish antenna. Suitable cable including a ground wire is the ToughCable from UBNT:

ok pulled the trigger bought the EAP110-Outdoor and a 3ft cable (more for the PoE and power issue than anything. Gonna combine the 15dbi antenna and hope i get better results. I assume im still keeping said antenna at a 45 degree angle on the roof?

I would recommend to use the standard 2x2 MIMO antennas of EAP110-Outdoor. They perfectly fit to the WiFi chip of the device and cover a large area. No hassle with attenuation due to cables, connectors etc. Just mount the EAP-Outdoor somewhere on the mast or even a wall at least 2.40 meters / 7.8 feet high over ground.

You should
not use a 15dBi external antenna, b/c if cable loss is <= 5dBi you will achieve an antenna gain of 10dBi, which is 10 times the maximum allowed radiation and this could be troublesome. If cable loss is near to 10dBi, the 15dBi antenna will not perform any better, but you lose MIMO (would need two antennas mounted in correct distance to each other). If cable loss is > 10dBi, the antenna will even give worser results than the standard ones. Thus, with a 15dBi external antenna you will always have disadvantages no matter how it actually performs.

However, you could use the 15dBi antenna as a mounting pole for the EAP. :)

I would recommend to use the standard 2x2 MIMO antennas of EAP110-Outdoor. They perfectly fit to the WiFi chip of the device and cover a large area. No hassle with attenuation due to cables, connectors etc. Just mount the EAP-Outdoor somewhere on the mast or even a wall at least 2.40 meters / 7.8 feet high over ground.

You should
not use a 15dBi external antenna, b/c if cable loss is <= 5dBi you will achieve an antenna gain of 10dBi, which is 10 times the maximum allowed radiation and this could be troublesome. If cable loss is near to 10dBi, the 15dBi antenna will not perform any better, but you lose MIMO (would need two antennas mounted in correct distance to each other). If cable loss is > 10dBi, the antenna will even give worser results than the standard ones. Thus, with a 15dBi external antenna you will always have disadvantages no matter how it actually performs.

However, you could use the 15dBi antenna as a mounting pole for the EAP. :)

Yeah but will i get the distance (radius) i need at least 900 feet (300 meters) which would cover most of my workable acreage with the standard antennas.

I bet you can see it at 300 meters distance also, but what type of antennas do your client devices have? They need to be powerful enough to be "seen" by the EAP, too. For example, with my Android tablet I can see the WiFi signal in a distance of 600 meters outdoor, but it will not be able to transfer data over such a distance. The tablet's antennas are just to weak to send a stable signal back to the AP.

So you can only find out by trial and error how much coverage you really get with the standard EAP antenna or with the 15dBi external antenna and the device(s) you are using. Please let the forum know what you find out.

So i finally got this thing. Never order a new product from a small company like pulling teeth. Anyway im going throught he controller software and i have a pretty easy setup. All i want to do is adopt the freaking AP. No matter what i try (even resetting the AP to factory, i cant seem to get it to adopt). I've used both the default admin/admin login/pw combo as well as the one i've created. Any ideas? i cant seem to find any mention of this issue anywhere. Either it shows me this error or says the AP im trying to adopt doesnt exist. In which case i refresh the page and try again only to get the failed info error.
.

So i finally got this thing. Never order a new product from a small company like pulling teeth. Anyway im going throught he controller software and i have a pretty easy setup. All i want to do is adopt the freaking AP. No matter what i try (even resetting the AP to factory, i cant seem to get it to adopt). I've used both the default admin/admin login/pw combo as well as the one i've created. Any ideas? i cant seem to find any mention of this issue anywhere. Either it shows me this error or says the AP im trying to adopt doesnt exist. In which case i refresh the page and try again only to get the failed info error.

Why want you to use EAP controller at all for just one device? Rather than that, use the web UI of the EAP for configuration. To do so, set the IP of your PC to a static, free IP in the 192.168.0.0 subnet (e.g. 192.168.0.10), start a browser, load
http://192.168.0.254/, configure the EAP and that's it. I would not mess with EAP controller for a single device used in standalone mode.

Why want you to use EAP controller at all for just one device? Rather than that, use the web UI of the EAP for configuration. To do so, set the IP of your PC to a static, free IP in the 192.168.0.0 subnet (e.g. 192.168.0.10), start a browser, load
http://192.168.0.254/, configure the EAP and that's it. I would not mess with EAP controller for a single device used in standalone mode.

thats exactly what i ended up doing. The documentation didn't really address stand alone mode vs multiple EAPs once i figured out i could get right into the AP i was golden. Getting pretty good range having trouble staying connected but i think those are just bugs that need to be worked out. When looking directly at the unit i have the 15dbi antenna hooked up to the right side port. Didn't seem to make a difference left or right in terms of range and since it's only a 2.4ghz band the port didn't seem to matter. Its set to 30tx suppose thats enough power to power the antenna.